


All The Time That Passes

by Nosferatank



Series: Coffee Shop Oneshots [2]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: "Coffee Shop" au, Gen, I continue to uphold the Sneature agenda, Pre-queerplatonic relationship, Risqué activities such as holding your platonic crush’s hand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:36:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29594973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nosferatank/pseuds/Nosferatank
Summary: For the first time, Luka does not ditch his friends and coworkers to hide his more monstrous form. A little trust goes a long way.
Relationships: The Prince (A Hat In Time) & The Florist (A Hat In time) & MJ
Series: Coffee Shop Oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2198739
Comments: 14
Kudos: 98





	All The Time That Passes

**Author's Note:**

> I know I’ve been here before but I can’t HELP it, coffee shop au appeals to my craving for poly qpp content, even if they aren’t all partners yet. I don’t remember if it was ever mentioned, but in this case I’ll go ahead and mention that MJ and Clover have been qpps for a while- Luka will be the newer addition.
> 
> Anyways I’m always a huge sucker for big old monster characters experiencing much-needed friendly touch and people being instinctually wary of some of those monstrous aspects (which is 100% reasonable, because usually long and sharp things attached to things bigger than us pings the ‘danger’ bit in our money brains) but still treating them like a person, or gently.

This was supposed to be something fun. Chill. Watching movies at MJ’s apartment after a busy weekend- snacks, beer, the whole shebang. Luka was a nice guy- he meshed well with them, and he never felt like a third wheel despite Clover and MJ’s established partnership, and despite his frequent escapes.

It didn’t change the fact that Clover’s nerves were trying to tie themselves into knots.

A… few things had come to light, the past few weeks. For one, Luka’s daughter actually existed, and was apparently far, far more human than her father. Or at least more human- _appearing_ \- Clover was pretty sure that painful awkwardness was a hundred percent pure human.

And it was a human awkwardness she wasn’t exempt from either, left to fidget with the snacks and the drinks- did Luka even drink? _Could_ he?

“I can _hear_ you overthinking over there,” MJ called from the couch. They were nervous too, she could tell- mindlessly scrolling through their phone too fast to read anything, absentmindedly scratching their fingernails over their pants.

“You be quiet,” Clover retorted. “It’s not like you aren’t worrying about the first hangout he might not ditch, which may I remind you is because-”

They both froze, a hesitant knock echoing from the front.

As she opened the apartment door, Clover couldn’t help but look for any hints of what she had seen before, in the dim light of Luka’s worn apartment after Harriet dragged them there. But there were no purple shadows creeping up his neck, no glint of too-sharp teeth, no fire-echo reverberating in his voice as he said “Uh, hi, I hope I’m not too late?”

Just Luka, looking as nervous as Clover felt. “Nah, dude, we got plenty of time. Go ahead and get comfortable, because we-” She flopped onto the couch demonstratively, slinging her feet across MJ’s lap and ignoring their grunt of token protest as she sprawled on the couch as if it was a bed. “-are watching a cinematic _masterpiece_.”

“We are not inflicting Shrek on Luka,” MJ automatically reprimanded, reaching for the remote and turning on the TV.

“Not _that_ cinematic masterpiece,” Clover said, trying not to look back at Luka as he settled himself on the other end of the couch, just barely avoiding sitting on her hair. “The _other_ one. Pacific Rim.”

“Oooh, I never got to see that one!” Luka leaned forward, the light of the TV glinting oddly off his eyes. “It was out of theaters by the time we- uh…”

MJ waved him off. “Don’t worry about it, we understand.”

“Shame you couldn’t see it in theaters, though.” Clover twisted her arm around to pat his back, mock-consoling and carefully casual. “It was cool as hell.”

“And it’s still cool as hell on _any_ screen, I’ll have you know,” MJ sniffed, and started the movie; Clover shut up after that, because you just did not interrupt the opening sequence to Pacific Rim.

Clover kept her focus on the movie- hard not to, really- but as Leatherback tore into the Jaeger, she could feel Luka tensing and fidgeting just after he’d finally started to relax.

Clover heaved herself up, relocating her legs from on top of MJ to propped on the table. As she opened the bag of chips she snagged on the way, she said “Y’know dude, you don’t need to hold that look while you’re here. Save your energy for going home, and all that.”

Even in the blue-gray light of the TV, his eyes reflected yellow, like the light off a deer’s eyes on the road. “Uh- I mean-“ A pause, as he shoved his doubtlessly-purple hands under his legs. “I don’t think I’ll fit on the couch?”

Somehow Clover doubted that was the reason. “I mean, if you can’t, you can always go home early.” The ‘ _again_ ’ went unspoken. She felt a little bad pulling that over his head to get him to stay, but what was the _point_ of finding out about all this if things just went back to the way they were? “And the floor isn’t _that_ uncomfortable.”

“I vacuumed recently,” MJ said helpfully.

For an excruciatingly long moment, Luka just _looked_ at them. “I’m just gonna-“ He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “… Yeah. Hold on.”

As Luka stood up and walked out of their field of vision, shedding his hoodie as he went, Clover looked at MJ with an expression roughly asking ‘ _So is he leaving, or…_ ’ and was answered with a helpless shrug.

“Uh.” Ash-soft, with a rumble chasing his words like a storm rolling in. “Can we rewind a bit? I missed this part.”

Clover jerked, nearly knocking over the half-empty beer by her foot as she and MJ whirled around in unison.

Clover’s first thought was ‘ _Whoa, big_ ’. _Definitely_ too big to fit on the couch- even coiled and sitting up, Luka had to be a good twenty feet long, his face and… paws? Mitts? Sized to match.

Her second thought was that somehow, Luka managed to look a bit sheepish even as a twenty-foot-long cryptid. Clover patted the back of the couch invitingly. “Yeah, okay, you definitely can’t fit, but you can at least rest your head here or something.”

The cushion sank under his weight as Luka stiffly obliged, and Clover felt his voice rumble through the couch as he told MJ where they should rewind the movie to.

As Otachi breathed its last on the screen, Clover held up her shot glass solemnly, intoning “Rest in peace, Otachi. You were a cool-ass kaiju.” And then sputtered, as the burning spread through her like a mouthful of cinnamon.

“Ack! MJ, what _is_ this?” Clover coughed, only just managing to make herself be heard over MJ’s snickering and Luka’s throaty rumbles.

Looking smug, MJ tipped back their own glass with no reaction more than an almost-invisible grimace. “It’s just whiskey- can’t take the heat?”

“No,” Clover grumbled, grabbing for the chocolate popcorn in the hopes of soothing her burning mouth. “Strongest whiskey _I’ve_ ever had.”

Something dark slithered into her peripheral vision, like the voided outline of a tree-branch against the night sky. “Can you pass me one of the pretzel bags?” Luka asked.

Turned out even with the extra arm-length, he couldn’t quite reach all the way to the other end of the table. Clover wordlessly passed him the bag, and wondered for a moment how he would manage to get it open with his weird chameleon fingers, dude didn’t even have any _thumbs-_

A talon longer than Clover’s hand slid out from his digits to slit open the bag, and Clover stopped wondering.

Her impulse control probably could have used some work, even with the excuse of the slight buzz, but as Luka emptied the pretzel bag into his maw like coal into a glowing furnace, Clover took one of his hands in hers. Well, as much of it as she could. There was a lot of it to hold.

“Um?” Luka said, in what would have been a squeak if he’d been human-shaped.

Clover dropped his hand like a hot coal. “Oh- I’m sorry, I should’ve-“

“Oh, it’s uh. It’s fine.” One night-purple hand ruffled the fur behind his head in what was probably a nervous gesture, but the other remained slack on the couch where Clover dropped it.

 _Aw, he blushes!_ Clover thought, absentmindedly picking up Luka’s paw-thing like it was made of glass. Focus no longer on the movie she’d watched too many times, she stroked down the soft fur, feeling between his knuckles and lightly pressing-

 _Aha! I was right!_ “MJ, oh my god, look-look-look!” She proffered a dumbfounded Luka’s hand towards her partner, still keeping that gentle pressure on it. “He’s _like a cat_.”

Mj’s eyes flicked from Clover, to the claw long enough to pierce them through like a blade, to Luka’s face covered by the unoccupied hand, and nodded decisively. “I can see it. He’s even fluffy enough.”

“Ugh, please, I get enough of that from Harriet,” Luka groaned. “She calls me a cat-snake.”

“And she’s a smart kid, so you know she’s right!” Clover said, releasing her hold on his fingers- but not fully. They were very soft. “What’s she up to, anyways?”

“At Timmy’s place- they’re having a sleepover with Mu, and I dropped her off on the way here.”

“Ooh, right. The bookstore owner and his hippie friend, right?” MJ mused. “At least it means we don’t have to worry about you being out after dark.”

Luka gave them both a flat look, coiling higher and tilting his chin. “I’m perfectly safe to go out after dark- there’s nothing in the forest that can really hurt me.”

“Nah, you’re just a trouble magnet.” Clover waved him off. “Like- remember the weird dudes in suits and fedoras who asked for beans? Those guys freaked me out a bit, for sure.”

“Or the man with those weird glasses?” MJ interjected, almost overtaken by Luka’s groan.

“Ugh, _that_ guy. How was I supposed to know someone would actually be insane enough to see me that far from the bus stop?”

Clover whirled around and gripped the back of the couch, grin crawling across her face. “No way. The Snatcher-in-pants thing was _real_?”A particularly loud explosion on the TV coincided with Luka oozing down from his coiled-up position and mashing his face into the seat of the couch between Clover and MJ. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Clover concluded.

Wait. Did that mean- Clover squinted past the black-furred bulk of her friend-coworker-maybe-more. Yes, those were his clothes, neatly folded on the kitchen table. Wait, did that mean Luka was naked? Or was it like dogs and cats, since they had fur-

“Movie’s over,” MJ announced, tapping Luka’s head and rousing him to look up from his couch-despair. “Wanna watch another one or call it quits?”

“Pfft, no, we just got started!” _Even if I wasn’t paying attention to the movie half the time_. “What are our options?”

“Shrek,” Luka smirked.

MJ slumped back across the couch. “Oh no, not you too,” they groaned- good-natured, despite Clover and Luka’s guffaws (And somehow, Clover couldn’t find it in her to be intimidated by the snapping fangs, accompanied by Luka’s too-pleased churrs).

“Y’know what, no, you two can’t be trusted, _I’m_ picking the movie.” MJ shoved Clover’s grabby hands away from the remote as she reached over Luka’s head for it. “We’re watching Spaceballs.”

“Aww.” Clover slumped across Luka’s head where it rested between them. He tensed beneath her, muscled bunched like spools of taut wire-

Relaxed, deliberately. Which was nice- his fur, Clover discovered, was very, very soft.

“You gonna be awake enough to watch the movie?” MJ asked, even as they surreptitiously leaned on Luka’s other side.

“Mmph. Sure,” she said, careful not to get Luka-fur in her mouth. 

“No promises,” Luka rumbled from between them. 

Even if he did fall asleep, neither of them would mind him sticking around for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Casual friendly touching….. Yeah baby! Just casually draping over your friends seems like a pretty common experience to me.
> 
> I figure MJ and Clover knew they quite liked him, but despite the well-meshing personalities, the lies (both real and perceived) were kind of a no-go for them. At least, that’s what I like to think.
> 
> [tumblr](https://banyanas.tumblr.com)  
> 


End file.
